


It’s Like Fate

by hrjpup



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Angst, Childhood Friends, Childhood Memories, Football | Soccer, M/M, Park Jisung & Zhong Chen Le Are Best Friends, Park Jisung (NCT) is Whipped, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-16
Updated: 2020-11-16
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:20:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27591956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hrjpup/pseuds/hrjpup
Summary: Jisung had always felt like him and Chenle were soulmates. Their paths in life crossed over and over as they grew up. But this is real life.
Relationships: Park Jisung/Zhong Chen Le
Comments: 5
Kudos: 24





	It’s Like Fate

Jisung had always felt like he and Chenle were soulmates.

One early Saturday morning in the winter of 2009, Jisung drug his backpack out of the trunk of his mom’s car. He flung it onto his back and stretched as far as his toes would let him into the trunk to pull his soccer ball out. By the tips of his fingers, he was able to knock it loose, the ball rolling on the carpet of the trunk down towards him. 

He wrapped his arms around the ball, bouncing in place, his feet unable to stay still even if he tried. 

“Go ahead Sungie, have fun today!” His mom ruffled his hair, Jisung taking that as his cue to run to the field. 

The second he got onto the grass he plopped down and pulled his backpack off his back. He ripped open the zipper and dug his cleats out of the bag. He already had his soccer socks and shin guards on, insisting that his mom let him put them on the second he got out of bed that morning. Jisung ripped his sneakers off and threw them in his bag, fingers carefully working to tie up his cleats. He messily zippered his backpack and bounced up, leaving a Jisung-sized print in the frost of the grass where he had been sitting. He turned, darting his eyes around the four soccer pitches in front of him, noticing his team was on the pitch to his right. 

Jisung ran as fast as he could with his ball tucked under his arm, the crisp morning breeze pushing his dark hair off his forehead. As soon as he made it to his team, he happily chirped greetings at his friends and coach, dropping his ball to his feet. He started to dribble the ball, getting some of the energy out that he had pent up after a week of school. At the sound of his coach’s whistle, he stopped the ball with his foot and turned to pay attention. 

“Okay boys, I have a nice surprise for you today. The second-grader team’s coach and I talked this morning, and we thought, instead of practice today, it may be fun if we did scrimmages instead!”

The boys cheered, a couple of them standing up and running, excited at the idea that they get to play a game instead of running laps. The coach had to blow his whistle to bring everyone’s attention back. 

“I want everyone to warm up a little before we start, everyone grab your soccer ball and come line up at the pitch line!”

Warmups felt like a blur to Jisung, he kept bouncing up and down, he couldn’t wait for the scrimmages.

_ “I’ve never gotten to play with the older boys before,” _ Jisung thought to himself, a smile creeping onto his face,  _ “I can’t wait to show them how good of a soccer player I am!” _

Before he knew it, the older boys were running over from their pitch, and everyone was getting into their positions for the match. Jisung was a striker, so he took the forward most position in the center, ready for the opposing team to kick off. 

Jisung’s teammate was able to get the ball from the other team and dribble up the side of the pitch while Jisung sprinted towards the goal. His teammate passed him the ball, but Jisung ended up too close to the older team’s goalkeeper and ended up tripping over the boy’s shoelace, falling right into him. 

Jisung felt the blare of his coach’s whistle in his inner ear, and watched through blurry eyes as the other players took a knee. Both coaches ran over to the boys to ask if they were okay, and Jisung and the goalkeeper both nodded, saying they were fine. 

“Jisung, Chenle, why don’t you come over to the sideline so you can take a breather,” the older team’s coach insisted. 

Jisung jumped to his feet and ran to the sideline, trying to prove to his coach that he was fine. As he turned around, he watched as the goalkeeper, Chenle, slowly pulled his goalkeeper gloves off and handed them to his teammate and then walked off the field. Chenle’s untied shoelace pulled mud from the grass as he made his way to sit down cross-legged next to Jisung.

Jisung looked over at the boy next to him. He had nicely trimmed black hair, styled and out of his eyes, unlike his own. He watched Chenle watch the game in front of him and looked down at Chenle’s untied shoelace. 

“Are you gonna tie that?” Jisung asked, pointing a small finger at the laces and cocking his head a little.

Chenle looked up.

“My shoe? I don’t know how,” the boy murmured.

“But you’re,” Jisung counted on his fingers, “eight, and you still can’t tie your shoes?” 

Jisung watched as the boy pulled his knees up to hug them at his chest, Chenle giving a little sniffle. Jisung’s eyes went soft.

“Hey, it’s okay, maybe I can teach you!” 

The older boy picked his head up, wiping a tear with his fist. 

“Really?” he mustered out. 

Jisung nodded confidently. 

Chenle turned his body toward Jisung, and Jisung helped pull the laces of Chenle’s cleats up, starting the knot, then helping to guide Chenle’s hands in his to show him. 

Jisung felt his heart start to race, and he was unsure of what this feeling was. 

—

Jisung felt his heart start to race, and he knew EXACTLY what this feeling was. 

Laying in bed next to his best friend, watching him sleep, there was nothing more in the world that he wanted than to be able to hold Chenle’s hand, hug him, kiss his soft flushed lips. 

It was the 10 year anniversary of when he and Chenle first met. 

Jisung looked out the window behind Chenle, who was lying facing him, a little drool on the corner of his lip, which made Jisung smile when he noticed it. 

_ “It’s snowing early this year,” _ Jisung thought to himself, watching as snowflakes dusted across the window. 

Looking down to watch Chenle’s chest rise and fall peacefully, Jisung smiled a little. He felt lucky that fate had helped bring him to Chenle again and again throughout their early life, so that Chenle could be stuck with him now. 

When Jisung was in 5th grade, there weren’t enough signups for his soccer team, so he had the options of quitting or playing with the grade above him. He happily accepted the challenge to play a grade up, and was even happier when he spotted the goalkeeper whom he taught how to tie shoes when he arrived at his first practice with his new team.

When Jisung was going into 6th grade, Chenle’s mom lost her job. Chenle kept coming to practice upset, and Jisung couldn’t figure out why he would be upset since he would get to go to public middle school with Jisung instead of staying at his private school with the silly little outfits and stuck up kids. At the time, Jisung said he felt like the universe was just bringing them together over and over. He said that if he was in Chenle’s place, he would rather hang out with Chenle over those other kids any day. He just couldn’t understand why Chenle didn’t feel the same. 

Jisung also couldn’t understand when pretty quickly into high school, all Chenle seemed to care about was girls. So much so, that when a girl told Chenle that soccer “wasn’t a cool sport”, he quit. Just like that. He quit. Jisung didn’t talk to Chenle for three days, until Chenle came up to him and offered him his favorite candy bar. Jisung knew Chenle must have gone out of his way to grab it for him on the way to school, and he felt his cheeks heat up as Chenle’s hands brushed his when he accepted the apology gift. 

Jisung was pulled out of his thoughts as he caught Chenle shifting out of the corner of his eye. 

“Good morning,” Chenle yawned, sitting up slowly, stretching his arms above him. 

“How did you sleep?” Jisung asked, his hands a little clammy. 

“Much better than I expected,” Chenle laughed, a big laugh straight from his chest, then slouched back against the headboard, “We were up pretty late huh? My head is killing me.”

“Yeah,” Jisung gave a soft, tired smile, looking down at his lap. 

Last night had been Jisung’s senior prom, and by chance, Chenle’s college canceled classes for the rest of the week, in preparation for an incoming snowstorm. Chenle texted Jisung that he would be in town, and Jisung FaceTimed Chenle the second he got the message. 

While friends in Jisung’s classes had created promposals for the girls they were interested in, elaborate invitations to the event, at first, Jisung wasn’t sure whether he wanted to even go. 

He wasn’t sure what was wrong, maybe he was a late bloomer, but he was 18, turning 19 in a few months and older than a lot of his classmates, and he still didn’t have any interest in girls like his other friends did. His only comparable interest was in Chenle, his friend that had graduated and gone off to school 3 hours away, who was constantly hooking up with hot college girls at parties, and barely seemed to have time for him anymore. 

“I know it’s not going to be as cool as your college parties but,” Jisung had told Chenle when the FaceTime a few days prior, “if you come to prom with me, there is an afterparty, so I think even though prom is pretty lame, we could still have fun at that”.

—

The evening rushed by, and suddenly Jisung and Chenle found themselves in a game of spin the bottle. Jisung watched Chenle crawl sensually to the girl he had landed on, a girl Jisung had never met. He wasn’t sure what happened next, his eyes fixated on Chenle’s and his drinks in his hand. When Chenle got back over to sit next to Jisung, he took both their drinks from Jisung’s grasp and cheered on his friend as he went to spin the bottle. Jisung held his breath as the bottle slowed, pointing undoubtedly at Chenle. 

It was like fate, like they were meant to be. 

Jisung looked up at his best friend, turning to face him. His face started to warm, a blush brighter than that from the alcohol dusted his face. He closed his eyes and pursed his lips, leaning in slowly, his heart practically jumping out of his chest.

Then Jisung felt his mouth make contact with skin, fluttering his eyes open to see he was kissing the palm of Chenle’s hand. Everyone laughed, and forcedly Jisung laughed along.

“Good one Sung, that was really funny,” a smile grew on Chenle’s face, but despite how bright his friend’s smile was, Jisung felt a little cold.

—

Shaking off the night before, Jisung pulled his knees to his chest and wrapped his arms around them. 

Jisung looked over at Chenle, “I feel so lucky that your classes got canceled right when my prom was...isn't it just like fate that you were able to come with me? It’s almost like we’re soulmates or something,” he laughed, hoping Chenle didn’t notice how his voice quivered. 

“Jisung,” Chenle looked at him, his eyes filled with sympathy, but without love. It was a look comparable to how someone might look at a dog at a shelter that they had no intention of taking home, “You know I don’t believe in stuff like that.”

Jisung had always felt like he and Chenle were soulmates.

“But if soulmates were real,” Jisung held his breath as if doing so would hold in the tears that were already streaming down his cheeks, “wouldn’t you love me back?"

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for a fic fest and it was rejected, but I thought I may as well post it here anyways 😭 My first time writing angst so I know it wasn't great, but thanks for reading!
> 
> [twt](https://twitter.com/hrjpup)


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